Giants wing McGillvary welcomes being placed under extra pressure

HUDDERSFIELD Giants’ Jermaine McGillvary may have scored a hat-trick in their opening game of the season but he is under no illusions that his place is safe at John Smith’s Stadium.

The 2013 League Leaders won 24-8 at champions Wigan Warriors a week ago to quickly underline last year’s silverware was no fluke.

Paul Anderson had signed England Knights international Jodie Broughton over the winter but the new recruit did not feature as Huddersfield’s coach showed ‘loyalty’ to McGillvary and Aaron Murphy, two wingers who each amassed 20 tries for him last term.

McGillvary, 25, clearly enhanced his credentials with such a bright start, showcasing his finishing skills once more.

But, speaking to the Yorkshire Post, he insists stress over his position is nothing new: “Everyone talks about Jodie Broughton coming in.

“He is a quality, seasoned player and people think it’s putting me and Murph’ under pressure.

“But there’s other people in the club who are just as good.

“There’s a young kid called Ben Blackmore, who is 20 and is a quality player.

“He played at Batley last week but we know, with people like him around, if we have a bad game we’re out of the team.

“It doesn’t change from last year, really. I got dropped back then against Castleford as I wasn’t playing so well.

“I’ll just try be best I can all the time, keep going here and see how far I go.”

Frustratingly for the West Yorkshire club, they do not have an opportunity to swiftly build on that impressive triumph at the DW Stadium.

They played Wigan early due to their opponents’ World Club Challenge commitments in Sydney and that means, therefore, they are without a fixture this weekend.

“It is a bit weird but they’ve made us train a bit harder to make it feel like a game,” added McGillvary.

“We’ll kick on from there next week when we play Hull KR at Huddersfield.

“To say it (Wigan) was only our second game all pre-season, as we had a game cancelled against Wakefield, it was a good start going away there to a champion side with quality players.”